thoughts on librarianship and literature

On My Radar: Summer 2018

I haven’t done a TBR style post in a hot minute! I kind of feel obligated to participate in the summer reading fervor. Despite the fact that it’s been summer for a whole month already (I follow the meteorological seasons) the DC area is only just now experiencing out first real heat wave of the summer. 100 degree heat + insane humidity + a chronic autoimmune disease that’s sensitive to heat and humidity = spending a lot of time inside reading. So, here’s my unofficial list of things I either have already read this summer am interested in getting to at some point before August 31–with the usual caveat that I almost never follow TBRs and will not read everything from this list/am likely to read things not listed here instead:

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

We Are All That’s Left by Carrie Arcos

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

Give Me Some Truth by Eric Gansworth

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Spill Zone, volume 1 by Scott Westerfeld

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Mortal Fall by Christine Carbo

The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz

I Just Ate My Friend

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

From my perspective, that’s a pretty good mix! As usual, there are no romance titles. I’m also going to be reading a nonfiction title related to my newly diagnosed autoimmune disease but I don’t feel comfortable listing it here as it would give away my diagnoses (and that’s none of the internet’s business!). I recently found out there are romances featuring dragon-like characters–maybe THAT will be the subgenre that finally makes me a romance reader…but not this summer.

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts lately. Last year, I discovered Thinking Sideways and then branched out to The Generation Why and, occasionally, Sword and Scale. Cycling through these guys every week is great but only 3 podcast episodes a week is not enough so I’ve started listening more regularly to In The Dark, Astonishing Legends, Already Gone, Reveal, Millennial, and Hidden Brain. Thus, I have not been listening to very many audiobooks in the past year or so and I feel less bad about not reading very much nonfiction.